[Leon]

Originally Posted by pbspelly

As a lawyer who happens to focus on false advertising, I find these kinds of listings fascinating. Regardless of what disclaimers a person puts in their ad, the key question is usually going to be what is the net impression a reasonable consumer would take away? Here, I think you would be hard pressed to say that a reasonable consumer would feel that the seller was "claiming" the card to be real. On the other hand, I think a lot of reasonable consumers would say the seller was claiming that there is a chance it could be real. In that respect, then, the claim is deceptive, since, presumably, the seller knows that it isn't real, and knows that there is no possibility of being real. Still, it would be pretty tough to argue that the consumer was taken advantage of, since a consumer who bought it thinking it was real was buying it hoping, themselves, to take advantage of a seller's mistake.

From an ethical standpoint, though, I do think these kinds of listings are unethical. If the seller knows that a card is a copy, I think it is wrong to deliberately list it in such a way that someone might mistakenly think you were wrong. But it is an interesting issue. At least to me.

These little ploys on ebay could make a book. It's interesting to me too.